Compulsive behaviours can wreck your fitness progress.

It doesn’t matter how dedicated and hard working you are in the gym, if you have to battle against involuntary cravings for food that you know you shouldn’t be eating, you’ll never get the progress that you deserve. Fortunately these types of compulsive behaviours are surprisingly simple to change.

Automatic responses like these run in a predictable pattern where each step in the process triggers the next step until the process is resolved. The typical response is something like this:

Step 1 Trigger: Something triggers the whole process off. This could be any number of events; an argument, being really busy, not being busy enough, travelling etc.

Step 2 Feeling: In response to the trigger you notice a particular feeling, perhaps boredom, stress, anxiety, a sense of frustration or confusion. Sometimes the feeling can even be a positive one such as happiness or excitement.

Step 3 Craving: In response to the feeling you notice the desire to eat something

Step 4. You either eat something and progress to step 5, or you try to use your will power (which is infinitely less powerful than your imagination) to resist the temptation until you either cave in, or become distracted by something else.

Step 5. You either feel differently and the process ends there, or you don’t feel differently and you continue going round in a loop until you feel so guilty or sick that these feelings override the others and then you stop.

Many people try and change how they feeling using external means. Some people use cigarettes, some use alcohol, some use drugs, and some people use food as in the above example. They are all trying to achieve a particular feeling externally, but they don’t realise that they can change how they feel instantly, from the inside.

To do this, we need to interrupt the old pattern and install a new one. Have you ever had the experience of talking with a friend, then being interrupted by someone, maybe a child who is demanding your attention? You deal with the interruption, turn back to your friend and you’ve completely forgotten what you were talking about. This is an example of a pattern interrupt and we’re going to use it to change your automatic responses around certain foods. We’re going to interrupt the old pattern with a more powerful emotion, then install a whole new pattern.

Step 1: The Trigger

Identify what your trigger is. What is the first step that starts the whole process off? This needs to be the first thing that you notice that is consistently part of the process. Is it a particular feeling, something that you say to yourself, or is it the image of your hand reaching out for a piece of food? Vividly imagine that first step happening right now, then move on to step 2:

Step 2: The Aversion

Allow the trigger image, feeling or sound to fade into the background. Then think of the worst possible consequence of what would happen if you continued with this type of behaviour. Vividly imagine that happening right now. This will be unpleasant but it’s important that you really get in touch with these feelings so that they override the old ones.

Most people have dissociated themselves from these consequences so it is important to re-associate with them to bring about change. Think about the consequences to your health; illness, disease and so on. Think about your body shape, your self esteem and confidence and how all of these things would affect every area of your life. Spend long enough in this experience so that it feels really unpleasant, then go on to step 3.

Step 3: The Statement

Take on a really powerful, empowering posture with your body and shout the word “NO!” If this is inappropriate then still use a powerful posture, but shout “NO!” to yourself in your mind. You are saying no to the idea of all these negative consequences and as you do so, allow your “NO!” to destroy those images and their associated feelings, then go to step 4.

Step 4: The Positive Consequence of the New Behaviour

Here you see and feel all the positive benefits of having said “NO!” to the negative effects of unconscious eating. Vividly imagine this as though it were happening right now. Imagine yourself being super fit and in the best shape of your life. See yourself in the mirror looking super fit and healthy. Feel the changes in your body, your levels of energy and vitality. Notice the reactions of other people in your life and let this in turn affect the image. Perhaps you’d like to add a soundtrack, maybe one of your favourite uplifting songs or perhaps words of encouragement, congratulations and praise. Notice how thinking, feeling and behaving in a whole new way has enhanced every area of your life, your self esteem and confidence, your social and intimate life, even your work life. Once you can feel how great this feels go to step 5.

Step 5: Break State

Open your eyes or distract yourself for a moment. Maybe take yourself to a neutral place in your mind or pay attention to something else. This will prevent the process from looping.

Repeat this process a number of times, getting faster and faster each time until it starts to streamline and become automatic.

Spending a few moments doing this exercise just once is often enough to make a radical change to your automatic thoughts and behaviours. However, if necessary you can return to this process and give yourself a top up whenever you feel like it in the future.